I’m a simple nerd: give me a Halloween episode, a murder board, and Kaitlin Olson wheeling around a haunted mansion with a purse full of fun-size Snickers, and I will mainline that sugar rush straight into my recaps. High Potential Season 2, Episode 6—aptly titled “Chasing Ghosts”—arrives in peak network-spooky season, and it’s a blast of pumpkin-scented chaos. But while the episode’s ghost story is a clever Trojan horse for a classic poisoned-rich-guy mystery, the show also slides something far more divisive into our trick-or-treat bags: a new slow-burn romance for Morgan Gillory and Captain Nick Wagner. I can smell the drama from three houses away, and yes, I’m worried about it.
High Potential season 2
Before we jump into the cobwebs, quick heads-up: spoilers for High Potential Season 2, Episode 6 ahead. Also, I will be saying the phrase “haunted necklace” with earnest conviction. Welcome to October TV.
If you’re here for the procedural engine, “Chasing Ghosts” gives you a satisfyingly twisty glide through old-Hollywood lore. Wealthy eccentric Danny Sternblatt collapses in his palatial LA home after being “frightened to death” by a spectral dead ringer for Maddie St. Croix, a legendary actress who supposedly haunts the property. The LAPD Major Crimes crew initially thinks it’s a heart attack via theatrical spooks—especially after they discover Shauna Khurmi, a gig ghost hired by Danny’s estranged wife Lorraine to prank him for months. The Scooby-Doo veneer is cute, but Morgan being Morgan, she starts tugging threads.
This is where I love the show’s rhythm: the clues are playful but grounded, and Morgan’s pattern-leaping isn’t a miracle power so much as weaponized curiosity. One minute she’s good-cop-ing a spiritual advisor named Calliope, the next she’s finding a secret room like she just unlocked a Metroidvania map. Inside? Relics from Maddie’s era and a necklace worth ten million dollars—aka the answer to the question “What if the ghost was capitalism the whole time?” The cause of death pivots to poisoning, and the culprit ends up being Calliope herself, in a reveal that lands with the satisfying clink of a well-set mousetrap.
I’m not saying I shouted “It was the medium with the necklace in the hidden room!” at my TV like a gremlin who’s played too much Clue, but I’m also not not saying that.
As a Halloween episode, “Chasing Ghosts” hits plenty of the expected notes—creaky house, retro tragedienne, candy as pocket-lint—but I wanted the show to go harder on production design and wardrobe. Morgan’s fashion is a quiet superpower of this series, and not paying it off with a costume felt like skipping the boss fight. Imagine Kaitlin Olson giving us a last-minute Maddie St. Croix homage while storming the reveal. Reader, I would’ve ascended.
Even so, the staging is fun. There’s a tactile pleasure in every ominous corridor and hidden latch, and the episode knows when to lean into theatricality without breaking the grounded tone that makes High Potential sing. The Halloween seasoning enhances the flavor instead of drowning the dish.
Across the last few episodes, the show has been carefully winding the spring on Morgan and Ava’s friction, and here it clicks. Their standoff after last week’s blowup hurts because it’s so specific: Ava is not just Morgan’s teen; she’s Morgan 1.0—restless, smart, and allergic to authority—but without the scars or survival frameworks that Morgan built the long, painful way. When they finally talk, Ava says the quiet part aloud: Morgan’s anger isn’t about Ava; it’s about Younger Morgan, the one too impulsive to check the blind spots.
The Roman backpack reveal is simultaneously sweet and maddening. A child’s drawing confirms he snuck into one of Ava’s dance recitals years ago, which is tender on paper and a logic grenade in practice. If Roman could take that risk, why not tell Morgan he was alive? The show is using his absence like gravitational force—characters orbit it, instincts bend around it—and the drawing is another hint that love and cowardice can look uncomfortably similar in the rearview. I appreciate that the series doesn’t let Roman off the hook, even when it tries to humanize him.
Let’s talk Captain Nick Wagner. He’s back in Major Crimes this week, looming like a well-groomed thundercloud, and the dude is very interested in Morgan’s romantic biography. On its face, this could be clumsy flirtation—he has a tragic past, she has commitment issues, together they have the chemistry of dry tinder and a match—but the show keeps cutting to Wagner at suspicious angles. He keeps showing up in ways that help… and also read like he’s collecting data. There’s a noticeable fixation on Morgan’s history with Roman, which could be curiosity or something colder.
Then there’s the bomb he drops: the dead fiancée. He says it was a few years ago. The fandom’s cork board immediately lights up. Is she connected to the larger Roman/Lila Flynn conspiracy? Was Wagner orbiting that case long before he wandered into this squad room? The episode smartly doesn’t answer; it just lets the question rattle around like a penny in a dryer while Morgan and Wagner shift closer, an inch at a time. It’s effective, and it sets up a gnarly moral collision if Wagner turns out to be entangled with the old cover-up. I’m not yelling “Do not kiss the red flag!” at my TV. I’m chanting it.
From a character perspective, Morgan/Wagner tracks. Morgan’s attraction map involves intelligence, authority she can volley with, and someone who sees her mind as an asset rather than an oddity. Wagner plays to that. He’s controlled where she’s chaotic; he’s image-conscious where she’s improvisational. Think opposites attract, but make it evidentiary. Their banter crackles because it’s framed like cross-examination—each line a test balloon of trust.
The worry isn’t chemistry; it’s architecture. High Potential is juggling a long-arc conspiracy (Roman, Lila, the backpack MacGuffins) and a weekly case engine. Installing a romance with a possibly compromised superior officer is like bolting a nitrous tank onto a car that already fishtails at high speeds. The thrill is real; so is the crash risk. If the writers can thread it—make the romance emotionally honest, let Morgan set boundaries that reflect her neurodivergent needs, and avoid turning her into the last person to learn what the audience already suspects—this could be electric. If not, we’re in for angst calories with no nutrition.
Look, I’d watch Kaitlin Olson read escrow documents and grade them for sarcasm. As Morgan Gillory, she keeps finding new ways to communicate cognition as momentum—her eyes track patterns like she’s trying to catch the future skipping frames. Here, Olsen’s physical comedy is quieter but sharp: the way she palms candy like contraband, the micromoment of delight when a clue fits, the little drop in her voice when Ava finally lands a truth dart. Even without a full-costume Halloween spectacle, Olson gives Morgan seasonal sparkle.
On the team side, Daniel Sunjata’s Karadec remains the perfect ballast—dry, unflappable, and faintly amused by the ongoing circus. Their partnership has evolved into a trust you can feel in the negative space: he lets Morgan spin, she respects his perimeter, and the casework moves briskly because the show allows competence to be sexy.
Procedurals live or die on the fairness of their magic tricks. “Chasing Ghosts” deals its cards face-up. The ghost is a red herring; the hired haunter is a witty hurdle; the medium with privileged access and motive anchored to a literal treasure is a clean end point. The reveal doesn’t rely on a last-minute lab report or a previously unmentioned cousin; it rewards attention. If you were treating this like a puzzle, you could solve it, and that’s key to long-term viewer trust. Also: secret room. Secret. Room. Put that on a bingo card and stamp it in blood-orange ink.
Two quibbles. First, Halloween-lite. I know the show likes realism, but this was the moment to let production design howl. Give me fog machines. Give me a score that winks at Hitchcock. Give me Morgan in a chaotic, homemade costume that somehow solves the case. Second, the Roman backpack slow-roll. I respect restraint, but “CD + folder + drawing” feels like the writers playing keep-away for another week. A morsel more—one photo, one date—would have fed the long-arc beast without gorging it.
As a High Potential Season 2 episode, “Chasing Ghosts” nails the show’s core promise: witty case-of-the-week, delicious character friction, and a breadcrumb trail toward a bigger, messier story. As a Halloween special, it’s charming rather than iconic—more fun-size than king-size—but there’s no sugar crash. The romance setup with Wagner is the real skeleton in the closet, and I’m equal parts intrigued and anxious. If the writers stick the landing, this courtship could supercharge Morgan’s arc. If they don’t, we’ll be screaming into throw pillows by sweeps.
